| Hub of northern Spain's staunchly independent Basque region, Bilbao was a gay Mecca long before the Guggenheim Museum opened its doors says OutUK's Adrian Gillan. | |
| There are many reasons to visit Bilbao. It's all eminently walkable and still not over-run with tourists; it's dead cheap; there's no need to struggle in vain with your crap Spanish - everyone speaks Basque; the Museo de Bellas Artes, arguably Spain's most important art collection after the Prado in Madrid; the Guggenheim Museum, one of the world's indisputably great buildings, both inside and out; the fine riverside walk from these two art treasures down toward the quaint Casco Viejo ("Old Town"). Bilbao is also very close to the equally gay St. Sebastian, home to the annual film festival, a mere hour away by bus near the French border and one of the world's most beautiful urban bays - quite a mini-Rio. |
From the cover of
Coosje Van Bruggen's book about architect Frank O.Gehry and his
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
|
GAY OLD TOWNAnd then, of course, there's Bilbao's lovely little and highly local gay scene itself, mainly centred in the Old Town and the aptly-named San Francisco district just across the river and wrapped around the main train station. By no means everyone will speak English - or Spanish - so enjoy utterly losing yourself in a warren of intimate venues where even the music is largely native, move over Madonna! | |
Pintxos - some local food. (c) Bilbao Turismo
| Starting in the narrow streets of the old Casco Viejo, gain your strength at gay-friendly, slate-clad Kasko on Andra Mari Kalea, offering classy set menus featuring local food called Pintxos (Pron: Pin-Chos), which are lots of small dishes of various delights. You might also want to return here later, after hours when this posh eatery transforms into a highly respected and gay-frequented dance club. |
|
Then stroll around the corner to the buzzing, wood-beamed Café Bizitza on Calle Torre,
a daytime and late-night café-pub with mixed but gay-slanted crowd, both boys and
girls. Note: hardly any gay venues in town have a public phone number - many open
so late and play music so loud, what's the point?
Next, pop around the block to the sprawling Café Lamiak on Calle Pelota - a mixed, two-floor café with a mildly intellectual air. Then, as the night deepens, cross over the river south to the friendly weekend cabaret bar Badulake on Calle Hernani. Manolita la Primera is run by some young entrepreneurs who have created a local gay environment which is also very heterofriendly! The bar has a good vibe with good music. Pub Key is a gay bar with a variety of shows, cabaret and singers. Their famous Asier Bilbao show is put on at weekends and holiday days. CLUBBINGNearby High on Calle Naja is a popular, medium-sized, brightly-lit joint, likewise catering to a mostly male crowd with a typically wide age range - as you find in many a "local" scene. Indigenous music is played in the main room, and there's a small scarce-used dance floor around the back: this is usually a "pit-stop" when gay men go out for the evening, so they save their jiving until later. Upstairs, you'll find a small adult movie theatre with rows of couches plus a small but active darkroom. | |
|
El Balcon de la Lola is a bar with industrial aesthetics which is great in the early hours of the morning. They play mainly house music and attract a gay and lesbian mixed crowd.
Zulo Taberna is a gay bar which is very good value and has a nice atmosphere. The Santu Bea is a bar that almost exclusively attracts gay men serving a full range of alcoholic beverages. The bar also has a Darkroom. |
Plaza Circular (c) Bilbao Turismo
|
Luz Gas in C/. Pelota is a pleasant gay bar appealing to gay men of all ages. There's some outdoor seating too.
Since there aren't really any
exclusively gay discos in Bilbao - guys who want to move it generally end up dancing
the night away in trendy but expensive mixed clubs.
HOT STUFFElement is a fairly new Sauna which is very fashionable, well designed and rather pleasingly very clean. Each cubicle has its own temperature control and ventilation. Mainly good looking young men, and a sauna with little or no attitude. There's a darkroom, relaxation room, dry sauna and steam bath.The most reliable and popular sauna in town is Ego, located in a complex off Plaza de Zabalburu, in a seedy - though hardly dangerous - neighbourhood just south of the main station. Ego is clean and well maintained with a sauna, steam room and plunge pool, plus a maze of private cabins, some showing porn. Guys also chat and relax in towels around the TV and bar area out front or in the small porn room out back. Busiest at evenings mid- week (until 11 pm) or from late afternoon onwards come weekends. | |
| Ego is actually located in something like an adult entertainment complex called the Galeria Zabalburu, with several other sex venues. The most interesting of these for gay men is the Sex Shop La Pera right next to the sauna, with porn-for-sale out front and rows of cruisy coin-slot viewing booths to the rear - easy to pull if you lose out in the sauna. |
Panorámica Casao Viejo (c) Bilbao Turismo
|
There are some other sex shops in Bilbao too, Fantasias in the C/. General Eguia and Sex Shop Ledesma Bilbao in Ledesma Musikariaren
Kalea which was one of the first erotic shops to open in the city. Both have cabins with glory holes and videos available all day. They cater for both
gay and straight clientelle.
MORE INFOEasyjet and British Airways fly direct from the UK to Bilbao and you can also go by ferry from Portsmouth. For gay-friendly hotels at special rates book online with out hotel partners Bookings.
Revised March 2023 | |